This invention relates to sports equipment and in particular to a hand paddle which is strapped onto a user's hand.
The sports of racketball and handball have gained increasing popularity in recent years. Such games are generally played in a four wall indoor or a three wall outdoor court. However, both handball and racketball have disadvantages. For example, in handball the player's hand can be injured due to hitting the ball. In addition, handball is somewhat difficult because the user's hands provide a small uneven surface area to hit the ball.
Racketball is played with a racket and therefore eliminates certain of the disadvantages of handball. However, racketball is not an ambidextrous sport. Therefore, the user risks overdevelopment of one arm and underdevelopment of the other. In addition, racketball has resulted in a high incidence of injury caused when a player is hit by the racket swinging at high velocity.
Unlike either the hand in handball or the racket in racketball, the present invention comprises a hand paddle which may be configured as either a left handed paddle to be worn on the left hand of the user or a right handed paddle to be worn on the right hand of the user. The present invention thus allows for an ambidextrous sport. Also, because the paddles are attached to the user's hand, there will be a significantly reduced incidence of injury to the user's hands or to the user's opponent due to being hit by a swinging racket. Finally, the hand paddles in accordance with the invention provide a flat surface against which the ball impacts rather than the uneven surface area of the hand as in handball.
Various types of hand paddles or bats have been developed for different types of games. Illustrative of those rackets are those disclosed in Smoak, U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,979; Rittenhouse, U.S. Pat. No. 1,523,900; Rittenhouse, U.S. Pat. No. 1,523,899; Brewer, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 1,558,666; Abrahams, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 492,343; Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 1,477,460; Rijan, U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,799; and Paget, U.S. Pat. No. 819,250.
Although each of these patents discloses a hand paddle or racket wherein the paddle is attached to the hand of the user by a suitable strap or glove mechanism, none of the references disclose a contoured hand conformed back surface or provide a means for gripping as part of the hand conformed back surface. In addition, the present invention includes a novel strap means which inclues finger straps, crisscrossed hand straps and a crisscross wrist strap mechanism for holding the racket firmly against the user's hand. The present invention also provides free movement of the user's thumb in a thumb manipulation region and a thumb gripping ridge against which the thumb can be pressed to grip the racket or against which a ball may be held by the thumb in preparation for service.